More than ever, audiences across the world crave authenticity and truth. They want to watch films and TV shows that feel real, that echo and connect to their complex and demanding lives. There’s been a consequent boom in stories based on true events, and a creative explosion in work that merges the boundaries between documentary and fiction. But when moving towards scripted work, how do we keep it real, and bring the grain of documentary grittiness to stories that are imagined?

This workshop will examine the long tradition of such genre-defying films, exploring the range of visual and narrative strategies available to filmmakers telling stories sitting at the intersection of documentary and fiction. It will delve into the development process, looking at the role of underlying sources and interviews, and explore the many ways of blurring the boundaries between genres. The workshop will also unpack the very different production process in making scripted work, providing filmmakers interested in pivoting between the genres a toolkit to navigate drama productions, while holding on to the authenticity and freshness at the heart of the best documentary work.

Particularly aimed at documentary directors interested in working in fiction, but also more generally at filmmakers interested in exploring the boundaries between the genres, through case studies and exercises this intensive workshop will also look at very different disciplines required of telling stories driven by the performance of actors rather than interviews, asking how directors can ‘keep it real’ to produce films that pack emotional as well as factual authenticity.